Chapter XIX: Act II: SCENE 3. Page 51

CLOWN. How now, my hearts? Did you never see _the picture of we
three_?

The original picture, or sign as it sometimes was, seems to have been two _fools_. Thus in Shirley's _Bird in cage_, Morello, who counterfeits a _fool_, says, "_We be three of old_, without exception to your lordship, only with this difference, I am the wisest fool." In Day's comedy of _Law tricks_, 1608, Jul. says, "appoint the place prest." To which Em. answers, "At the _three fools_." Sometimes, as Mr. Henley has stated, it was two asses. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Queen of Corinth_, Act III. Scene 1,

"NEAN. He is another _ass_, he says, I believe him.

UNCLE. _We be three_, heroical prince.

NEAN. Nay then we must have the _picture_ of 'em, and the word _nos
sumus_."

SCENE 3. Page. 53.

CLO. I did impeticos thy gratility.

This is undoubtedly the true reading, for the reason assigned by Mr. Malone. From the discordant notes on the passage, a question has arisen whether the fool means to say that he had put the six-pence into his own petticoats, or given it to his petticoat companion, his _leman_. Mr. Steevens has observed that "petticoats were not _always_ a part of the dress of fools, though they were of idiots;" and on this assertion, coupled with another by Dr. Johnson, that "fools were kept in long coats to which the allusion is made," Mr. Ritson maintains that "it is a very gross mistake to imagine that this character (_i. e._ our clown's) was habited like an _idiot_." Now it is very certain, that although the idiot fools were generally dressed in petticoats, the allowed fool was occasionally habited in like manner, as is shown more at large in another part of this volume; which circumstance, though it may strengthen the opinion that the clown has alluded to his own dress, by no means decides the above question, which remains very equally balanced.

SCENE 3. Page 63.

SIR TO. Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall beno
more _cakes and ale_?

The holiday cakes referred to in Mr. Letherland's note were the yule or Christmas cakes; those on the lying-in of the Virgin; cross-buns, and twelfth cakes. Mr. Lysons, in his account of Twickenham, mentions an ancient custom of dividing two great cakes in the church on Easter-day among the young people. This was regarded as a superstitious relic; and it was ordered by the parliament in 1645, that the parishioners should forbear that custom, and instead thereof buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish.

SCENE 4. Page 70.

DUKE. And the _free_ maids that weave their threads with bones.

The private memoirs of Peter the wild boy, if they could be disclosed, would afford the best comment on the above disputed epithet, as applied to the _websters_ in question.

SCENE 4. Page 71.

CLO. And in _sad cypress_ let me be laid.

Mr. Steevens has in this edition cancelled a brother commentator's note, which ought on every account to have been retained, and has himself attempted to show that a _shroud_ and not a _coffin_ of cypress or cyprus is intended. It is no easy matter, from the ambiguity of the word, to decide the question. The cypress tree was used by the ancients for funeral purposes, and dedicated to Pluto. As it was not liable to perish from rottenness, it appears to have been used for coffins. See Mr. Gough's Introduction to _Sepulchral monuments_, p. lxvi. In Quarles's _Argalus and Parthenia_, book iii., a knight is introduced, whose

"... horse was black as jet,
His furniture was round about beset
With branches, slipt from the _sad cypresse tree_."

In further behalf of the wood, it may be worth remarking that the expression _laid_ seems more applicable to a coffin than to a shroud, in which a party may with greater propriety be said to be _wrapped_; and also that the shroud is afterwards expressly mentioned by itself. It is nevertheless very certain that the fine linen called Cyprus, perhaps from being originally manufactured in the island of that name, was used for shrouds. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's, Cambridge, mention is made of _a sypyrs kyrcher belonging to the cross_. In this instance there being the figure of a dead body on the cross, the cyprus was designed as a shroud.

SCENE 5. Page 88.

MAL. By my life, this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's, her
U's, and her T's, and thus makes she her great P's.

Mr. Ritson having with great probability supplied the _whole_ direction of the letter, there seems to be no foundation left for Blackstone's conjecture. Malvolio had no motive for any _coarse_ allusion. With respect to the instance of the letter in _All's well that ends well_ not being recited literally by Helen, it must be recollected that there was no reason for making her do so, as she talks in _blank verse_; and it would therefore have been improper that she should have given more than the _substance_ of the letter.

SCENE 5. Page 93.

MAL. ... and wish'd to see thee _cross-gartered_.

Of this fashion but few vestiges remain; a circumstance the more remarkable, as it must have been at one time extremely common among the beaux in Elizabeth's reign. In the English edition of Junius's _Nomenclator_, 1585, 12mo, mention is made of "hose garters, going _acrosse_, or over-thwart, both above and below the knee." In the old comedy of _The two angrie women of Abingdon_, 1599, 4to, a _serving-man_ is thus described:

"... hee's a fine neate fellow,
A spruce slave, I warrant ye, he'ele have
His cruell _garters crosse about the knee_."

SCENE 5. Page 94.

MAL. I will be _point-de-vice_ [_device_].

As the instances of this expression are of rare occurrence, those which follow are offered as likely to be useful to the author of any future work that may resemble the well-planned, but unfinished glossary of _obsolete and provincial words_ by the late Dr. Boucher. In the interlude of _The nature of the four elements_, Sensuality, one of the _dramatis personæ_, promises a banquet

"Of metys that be most delycate,
Which shall be in a chamber feyre
Replete with sote and fragrāt eyre
Prepared _poynt-deryse_."

In _Newes from the North_, 1579, 4to, mention is made of "costly banqueting houses, galleries, bowling-allees, straunge toies of _point-devise_ and woorkmanship," sign. G. In an old and very rare satirical poem against married ladies, entitled, _The proude wyves paternoster that wold go gaye, and undyd her husbande and went her waye_, 1560, 4to, one of the gossips recommends her companion to wear

"Rybandes of sylke that be full longe and large,
With tryangles _trymly made poyntdevyse_."

Some further account of this piece may not be unacceptable. It is described in Laneham's _Letter from Killingworth_ as forming part of Captain Cox the mason's curious library. In the appendix to Baker's _Biographia dramatica_, p. 433, a play under the same title is mentioned as entered on the Stationers' books in 1559; but from the correspondence in the date, it was, most likely, the present work, which cannot be regarded as a dramatic one. It describes the hypocritical behaviour of women at church, who, instead of attending to their devotions, are more anxious to show their gay apparel. One of these, observing a neighbour much better clothed than herself, begins her _paternoster_, wherein she complains of her husband's restrictions, and prays that she may be enabled to dress as gaily as the rest of her acquaintance. She afterwards enters into conversation with a female gossip, by whose mischievous instigation she is seduced to rebel against her husband's authority. In consequence of this, the poor man is first entreated, next threatened, and finally ruined. The author of this poem is not the first who has irreligiously made use of the present vehicle of his satire. One of the old Norman minstrels had preceded him in _The usurer's paternoster_, which Mons. Le Grand has inserted among his entertaining _fabliaux_, and at the same time described some other similar compositions.

But to return to _point-device_:--There was no occasion for separating the two last syllables of this term, as in the quotation from Mr. Steevens's text, nor is it done when it occurs elsewhere in his edition. It has been properly stated that _point-device_ signifies _exact, nicely finical_; but nothing has been offered concerning the etymology, except that we got the expression from the French. It has in fact been supplied from the labours of the needle. _Poinet_ in the French language denotes a _stitch_; _devisé_ any thing _invented_, _disposed_, or _arranged_. _Point-devisé_ was therefore a particular sort of patterned lace worked with the needle; and the term _point-lace_ is still familiar to every female. They had likewise their _point-coupé_, _point-compté_, _dentelle au point devant l'aiguille_, &c., &c. The various kinds of needle-work practised by our indefatigable grandmothers, if enumerated, would astonish even the most industrious of our modern ladies. Many curious books of patterns for lace and all sorts of needle-work were formerly published, some of which are worth pointing out to the curious collector. The earliest on the list is an Italian book under the title of _Esemplario di lavori: dove le tenere fanciulle & altre donne nobile potranno facilmente imparare il modo & ordine di lavorare, cusire, raccamare, & finalmente far tutte quelle gentillezze & lodevili opere, le quali pò fare una donna virtuosa con laco in mano, con li suoi compasse & misure. Vinegia, per Nicolo D'Aristotile detto Zoppino_, MDXXIX. 8vo. The next that occurs was likewise set forth by an Italian, and entitled, _Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts du seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de lingerie_. Paris, 1588, 4to. It is dedicated to the queen of France, and had been already twice published. In 1599 a second part came out, which is much more difficult to be met with than the former, and sometimes contains a neat portrait, by Gaultier, of Catherine de Bourbon, the sister of Henry the Fourth. The next is _Nouveaux pourtraicts de point coupé et dantelles en petite moyenne et grande forme, nouvellement inventez et mis en lumiere. Imprimé à Montbeliard_, 1598, 4to. It has an address to the ladies, and a poem exhorting young damsels to be industrious; but the author's name does not appear. Vincentio's work was published in England, and printed by John Wolf, under the title of _New and singular patternes and workes of linnen, serving for paternes to make all sortes of lace, edginges and cut-workes. Newly invented for the profite and contentment of ladies, gentilwomen, and others that are desireous of this art._ 1591, 4to. He seems also to have printed it with a French title. We have then another English book of which this is the title: _Here foloweth certaine Patternes of Cut-workes: newly invented and never published before. Also sundry sortes of spots, as flowers, birdes and fishes, &c. and will fitly serve to be wrought, some with gould, some with silke, and some with crewell in coullers: or otherwise at your pleasure. And never but once published before. Printed by Rich. Shorleyker._ No date, in oblong 4to. And, lastly, another oblong quarto entitled _The needles excellency, a new booke wherin are divers admirable workes wrought with the needle. Newly invented and cut in copper for the pleasure and profit of the industrious._ Printed for James Boler, &c. 1640. Beneath this title is a neat engraving of three ladies in a flower garden, under the names of Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie. Prefixed to the patterns are sundry poems in commendation of the needle, and describing the characters of ladies who have been eminent for their skill in needle-work, among whom are Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of Pembroke. These poems were composed by John Taylor the water poet. It appears that the work had gone through twelve impressions, and yet a copy is now scarcely to be met with. This may be accounted for by supposing that such books were generally cut to pieces, and used by women to work upon or transfer to their samplers. From the dress of a lady and gentleman on one of the patterns in the last mentioned book, it appears to have been originally published in the reign of James the First. All the others are embellished with a multitude of patterns elegantly cut in wood, several of which are eminently conspicuous for their taste and beauty.

It is therefore apparent that the expression _point-devise_ became applicable, in a secondary sense, to whatever was uncommonly exact, or constructed with the nicety and precision of _stitches made or devised by the needle_.